The corner of Nigeria enforcing ‘sit-at-home strikes' with deadly effect
He started running for his life and just yards away, saw someone hit by a bullet then drop to the floor with a thud. He didn't stop running, knowing that if he did, he'd be the next victim.
That was four years ago – and the torment has never ended for Emeka and his neighbours.
For every Monday, those living across Nigeria's south-east are subjected to 'sit-at-home strikes' during which they are not allowed to leave their homes under the orders of banned separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob). Banks are shut, schools are closed, shopkeepers stay at home and residents stay off the streets.
If they defy the orders, they will beaten or shot dead on the street, with their cars set on fire – sometimes with them still inside.
'They use Mondays to terrorise people in the name of fighting for Biafra. They kill innocent people [and] burn motors that refuse to sit at home,' Emeka, who declined to give his real name for fear of reprisals, told The Telegraph. 'Seriously, things are not going well.'
Monday used to be the busiest day of the week for Emeka's chemist shop in the southern city of Aba. Now business grinds to a halt. His shop and the stalls across Ariaria market – one of the largest in West Africa – are deserted and the city is left as a ghost town.
The Ipob, labelled a terrorist organisation by Nigerian authorities, launched the weekly sit-at-home protest in August 2021 across the five states of Nigeria's south-east, which is predominantly inhabited by the Igbo ethnic group.
Their aim was to pressure the government into releasing Nnamdi Kanu, the group's leader. The group has since said they have called off the strikes, claiming they have been hijacked by criminal groups.
The disruption has now dragged on for four years. At least 700 people have been killed and the local economy has been blighted by the carnage, with losses surpassing 7.6 trillion naira (£3.7bn).
Among the dead are civilians punished for defying the weekly order, as well as those who have died amid clashes between the separatists and Nigerian security forces, according to SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based research firm.
Ikemesit Effiong, a partner at SBM, said the strike had created a 'climate of fear and economic paralysis' in the region. Ipob have subjected locals to arson, looting and targeted assassinations, the firm said.
The violence and economic blight are driving people away from what has traditionally been one of Nigeria's commercial hotspots.
Ngozi left her village in Imo state for Lagos with her husband and children because of what she said were relentless assaults against people not complying with the protest.
She said: 'You almost cannot see any young person in my community now, everybody left. If you speak about them, they will come and burn your house and kill everybody they can find.'
One trader who sells plastic ware in the city of Onitsha, who only gave her name as Janet, said: 'I am not in support of Biafra or Nigeria but since we cannot go to work, I just stay at home with my family to be safe.'
Mazi Austin Agbanyim, Ipob's Europe representative, confirmed the group had started the stay-at-home protest to demand the release of Mr Kanu, who was arrested in Kenya in 2021.
Mr Kanu is a British dual national who has championed Biafran independence for years and formerly ran a campaigning radio station from his flat in Peckham, South London. Biafra briefly seceded from Nigeria in the late 1960s, prompting civil war and the deaths of at least a million people, before the breakaway was blockaded and starved into surrender.
After his arrest in Kenya he was taken back to Nigeria where he has been held ever since and faces terrorism charges.
Ipob claims it has since called off the protests and they are not responsible for the deaths of civilians, arguing instead that they have been 'hijacked by criminal imposters'.
Mr Agbanyim told The Telegraph: 'They were paid by the enemies of Biafra freedom to infiltrate our movement, criminalise it, and cause division. They did so by illegally enforcing sit-at-home on Mondays and killing those who dare violate their orders.'
Analysts say the situation has been further confused by other armed groups claiming allegiance to Ipob and factions within the group persisting in enforcing the protest.
Criminal gangs are also thought to have latched on to the chaos. Polling shows that any support for the protest has plummeted as the years have dragged on.
Despite Ipob's attempts to disassociate itself from the region's violence, Nigerian police have accused the group of involvement in several incidents, including a 2021 attack on a prison and the murder of over 30 travellers earlier this month.
The Ipob denied responsibility for those two attacks.
Nigeria's federal high court in Abuja last week said it would rule on Oct 10 whether to free Mr Kanu.
Back in Aba, Emeka is convinced that a release would ease the situation, though he is not sure which way the court will go.
He said: 'I just wish one day it will end.'
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